UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Race: Spaniard sizzles in Bahrain

Renault ace wins

Renault’s impressive, if slightly unexpected, start to the Formula One season continued with Fernando Alonso claiming victory in the Bahraini Grand Prix.

The Spaniard completed his second pole position-to-win performance in two weeks, once again in dominant fashion.

Continuing the Malaysian repeat, Jarno Trulli followed Alonso home to claim Toyota’s second podium finish.

Kimi Raikkonen kick-started McLaren’s championship campaign with a third place finish while Ralf Schumacher rounded out a solid result for Toyota in fourth.

McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa provided the excitement on Sunday afternoon with a flurry of on-the-limit passes to finish an impressive fifth.

Williams’ Mark Webber limped home to sixth while Sauber’s Felipe Massa made a late charge to secure two points in seventh.

David Coulthard gave Red Bull their third successive points finish in eighth.

But despite a string of solid drives, it was Renault and Alonso that captured the all the post-race attention.

The squad were expected to be quick in 2005 but the Ferrari-style domination of the early races no one had predicted.

After three rounds, Alonso leads the drivers’ championship by 10 points while his team have an 11 point lead in the constructors’.

The empire of Ferrari continued to crumble with Michael Schumacher retiring early and Rubens Barrichello offering little resistance to an onslaught of passes.

Adding further insult to another ‘pointless’ weekend was Felipe Massa’s late-lap move on his Brazilian compatriot.

Massa, at the wheel of a Ferrari-powered Sauber, passed Barrichello for seventh place before Coulthard pushed him out of the points half way around the final lap.

But, to be fair on the champions, their campaign wasn’t without promise.

Schumacher retired whilst in a tight battle for the lead with Alonso, and Barrichello moved from 20th to 11th on the first lap alone.

But their early pace and now reliability have to be providing major reasons for concern with championship running away.

That concern would be shared by BAR who leave Bahrain having managed nothing more than a successive double-DNF.

Takuma Sato was the first of the Brackley based pair to exit with brake problems while Jenson Button dropped out after his second stop with suspected engine problems.

If Ferrari’s season has been bad, BAR’s has been terrible. After three events the team are yet to score a point and whilst on track their cars have hardly looked formidable.

RACE SHORTS

* Super Spaniard the Second. Sunday was a day to remember for Spaniards with two of their compatriots impressing in Bahrain.

While Fernando Alonso claimed race honours, the ultra-exciting Pedro de la Rosa set the fastest lap time of the race.

Making the feat so much more impressive was the fact that de la Rosa, who struggled at Arrows and Jaguar in the past, hadn’t raced since late 2002.

* Centuries. Fernando Alonso’s win was Renault’s 100th, as an engine supplier, in Formula One.

Sunday also marked Sauber’s 200th Formula One start and Felipe Massa marked the occasion with a point scoring finish.

* Blown hopes. Two high profile teams suffered engine failures on Sunday.

Giancarlo Fisichella was first to bow out in the second of the Renaults. Nick Heidfeld followed midway through the race in his BMW-Williams.

* Heating up. Many Formula One drivers thought the Malaysian Grand Prix was unbearably hot, so Sunday in Bahrain would give given them a shock.

By the start of the race the ambient temperature was at 42 degrees Celsius and the track nine higher at 51.

The event is said to be one of the hottest in the history of the sport.

Written: Sun, 03 Apr 2005 13:10:07